


A Study on Cleanliness

by rosabelladarling



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bathing/Washing, F/M, Series, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 23:06:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3668574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosabelladarling/pseuds/rosabelladarling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of baths drew them to one another. From flimsy friendship to raw romance - the many baths of Hanji Zoe and Levi Ackerman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study on Cleanliness

The first time she asks for it outright.

“Are you kidding me?” he spat.

The sweet innocence of her face only served to make him angrier. She shook her head. She frowned, jutting her lower lip out and raising her eyes in a pondering expression. She nodded. She frowned again. She sighed.

“About you being a hindrance to my reading or about you bathing me?” she asked.

Narrowing his eyes, he glared at her.

“Bathing. Got it,” she said, throwing her long legs over the edge of her bed and carelessly kicking her beloved book to the floor. She didn’t even bother a glance in its direction. “No. I’m not. I’ve never bathed myself. Could you show me how?”

If he glared at her any harder, his eyes would jut through the back of his head.

“You take yourself. You take the water. You put yourself in the water. You clean yourself. You get _every last piece of dirt_. You dry off. The next day and every day afterward, you repeat.” He blinked at her. “Are you really this stupid?”

Her smile waned to something small and somewhat sad. “I didn’t say that I hadn’t bathed. I said that I hadn’t bathed myself. Are you stupid, Levi?”

He opened his mouth before closing it and opening it again, “Listen, Four-Eyes, I’m not even a part of your squad and it’s bothering me during expeditions. You want a theory to test out for you research?”

“YES!” she interjected, face bright and bubbling again.

“See if it isn’t your stench bringing the titans on us like flies to shit.”

It was interesting just to watch her face run through the gamut of emotions in her head. Hanji was about as subtle as a titan bumbling through an open field when it came to her facial expressions. First she nodded, intrigued, before frowning. She pouted for about a second before leaving her face blank and drawing her long legs up and in to sit cross-legged on her bed and…the Walls even her shoes were muddied. His right eye twitched as he watched the tattered comforter become caked in grime.

“That would require me to head out on my own, though…because any other soldiers would sully me, as the isolated subject of this study, and my filthy stench. But then how would I know that they were chasing my stench and not just me? How would I contain my smell? Maybe a jar? Do you think a jar could hold it? I could get some during break next week along with the broom for the two that I broke of yours. I didn’t forget! See! Hmm…would they chase your cleanliness just as well as my stench? Can they even smell, do you thi- HEY! DON’T LEAVE!” she snapped as he made his way to the door. “I’m serrrrriiiouuuuussss, Levi! I’ve only been bathed by maids and family and…Sarah.”

He turned then. He watched her, frowning sadly. She was worse than a toddler, her legs already having untied and now knocking ankle against ankle.

Maybe a part of him should have wanted to know more about her then. What wealth she had to have to have maids looking after her. What luck she had acquired to have – or had – a family. But he didn’t want to know. It would only make him dislike her more and she would go on for days about things that he had no time to care about. He could reasonably ask after her well-being as Sarah had died two missions back when her horse had unceremoniously tripped trying to outrun a titan. He did care, after all, of a comrade finding another squashed into the earth. It was an unnecessary pain wrought upon her and others.

But so was her not bathing.

“Are you trying to tell me that you haven’t bathed since Sarah passed?”

“The last expedition I rode in the rain just like everyone else,” she supplied. “Does that count?”

He soured. “No.”

“Oh poo,” she sighed. “Then that would be correct: Sarah last bathed me. Oh! But what about-“

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it doesn’t count. Unless we’re numbering wastes of my time.” He sniffed haughtily. “Get one of the other female cadets to bathe you.”

Hanji frowned deeply. “But they don’t like me! They say that I talk too much.”

“I don’t like you,” said Levi. “Moreover, they’re right.”

“Yes you do! And they don’t like you either! So HAH!” She beamed as if wounding him greatly.

Levi shrugged.

“It’s all because you went after Erwin,” she said in a teasing tone. He wondered why the women didn’t like Hanji when she sounded just like one of them huddled up over their latest gossip. But then his eyes fell back upon the marred bit of comforter and he twitched again. Hanji swung her leg against the bed as if sensing his removal from the conversation. “They have _massive_ crushes on him. _Especially_ Soph-“

“Don’t care,” he said.

“Well you should,” she said simply. “Because trust is just as valuable a weapon here as our gear.”

The weight of her words made him pause. Hanji was hands down the most infuriating person to be around in the entire corps. Probably all three branches slapped together could not find a more irritating person than her once titans were brought into the conversation (and even when she managed to push them in all on her own). But the thought came, unbidden, of her handing sweets to a lonely Isabel.

As Hanji sat humming a tune, Levi broke his glare to glance at the wall. He may have looked bored. He vaguely heard the woman in front of him asking him if he were gassy. He rolled his eyes, settling his cold gaze back upon her.

“I’m going to run the bath for you-“

“YAY!” cried Hanji, pumping both fists in the air in triumph.

“-and then I’m going to drown you in it.”

“BOO!”

He turned, forcibly digging his nails into his palm to keep himself from dragging her comforter out to wash as well. “Thirty minutes, Four-Eyes. Come to the men’s bathhouse.”

Hanji huffed. “Levvvviiii. I’m a woman! I can’t go there! The guys will see my bits and baubles and get all bothered on the field. Do you want us all to die?”

Levi clenched the doorknob, turning his head slowly to give Hanji a dark look over his shoulder. Damn her for nearly causing him to laugh. He might have if it wasn’t for her shitty smelling room and her shitty colored shirt and her shitty, shitty comforter stained like a battle wound bleeding from top to hem.

“Bathhouse is empty at this hour,” he said. He paused. “Thirty minutes.”

She whined some more, but he was done and out the door and into the night.

The bathhouse was indeed empty, the tubs lined in a row providing a basic comfort for his senses. If he ignored the dilapidated roof beams threatening to bring the sky in, he could almost appreciate the room. He had already ran the lukewarm water and busied himself with setting a brush and a cloth in an empty bucket.

Frowning, he picked up the cloth and draped it over the bucket’s mouth. But then the brush looked lonely. He tapped a finger on the tub, listening to the answering hum. Suddenly, he picked up the brush and laid it on its back.

There. That felt…well, not quite _right_ but better.

He sniffed and ran his tongue along the roof of his mouth as he looked to the door.

_I’m going to kill that idiot if she fell asleep_. His frown deepened. _Trust as a necessity…huh. I hadn’t ever thought of it that way before, though. She has her moments_.

Fingers thrumming, he scooped down to tap the brush to the center of the bucket.

Just when he was readying himself to topple the whole bucket over, Hanji burst into the bathhouse as if barreling out of an explosion.

“WAHOO! BATH TIME! Ugh! The men’s bathhouse is so much cleaner than ours! No fair!”

Scowling, he motioned to the tub. “Water is getting cold. Only going to go over this once-“

She nodded, already unbuttoning her shirt. Her belts were nowhere to be seen, supposedly lying back in her room.

“Tch…reckless, are we?”

“Oh this shouldn’t take long though, should it?” she asked, throwing her shirt on the floor and casting her bandaging off beside it. “Like…five minutes max?”

Her small, perky breasts jiggled as she bent to shuck off her boots. He blinked, tapping his foot.

“I’ll be here a minute. You’ll be here all night if you ever hope to clean all that grim off of you.” He watched as she shimmied out of her white pants, glancing up at him curiously. He sneered. “How are you allowed on the field without knowing how to clean yourself? That should be a requirement for soldiers before joining the corps.”

She laughed at him. _Laughed_. Then she rolled her panties down her long, tanned legs and his eyes followed their descent unwittingly.

“Only you would have such a ridiculous mandate,” she giggled. “If the rumors are true and you’re promoted, you’ll be able to ask it of your cadets.”

He grunted noncommittally.

“Just think, Levi! _Captain_ Levi sounds pretty official, doncha think?”

“Clean, clothed Hanji sounds more like something that I’d like to hear,” he said roughly.

Making some ridiculous noise with her mouth – something like a _psshaw_! – she kicked her clothes before reaching to tear the hair band holding up her dead looking brown locks. The hair fell lifelessly against her shoulders and she shook her head.

The chipping sound that Levi’s nails made against the tub filled the air.

“Coming…I’m coming…you big grouch,” she muttered.

Slipping her feet into the water, Hanji shivered. The muscles of her buttocks clenched. “COLD COLD COLD COLD-“

“Was warm thirty minutes after I left your quarters,” he said. “Sit down.”

Though her voice pitched in heaves and hisses, she sat, bending those titanic legs. Levi watched her twist her neck to and fro, seemingly relishing the cracks that fired into the air. Her long fingers intertwined with each other over the hair at the back of her neck, humming.

“It’s still sooooooo coooollllllddddd but it does feel pretty good on my skin!”

He stepped behind her, looking down at her and blinking slowly.

“So what do I clean fwaaaaggghhhhh…!!!”

Gentle yet determined fingers pressed Hanji’s head below the water. Levi breathed through his nose, shutting his eyes against the silence.

He inhaled.

He exhaled.

He inhaled, sharply this time.

He opened an eye.

The bubbles in the water were few and slow. Her arms remained above water, still as stone. Toes clutching the end of the tub stretched and curled and Hanji’s head turned not a degree, in something quite like deference.

Gasping low, Levi hurled Hanji’s head above water. She took in air by the mouthfuls, greedily taking it in through wheezing.

“HA HA HA! HAHAHAHAHA!” she roared.

Levi gaped at her, eyes wide. “You were so calm…”

“HA HA HA! You nearly got me there, Levi! Oh ho ho…that was fun!”

Tipping her head side to side, Hanji let her wet hair slap her skin. Levi noticed the straps of her glasses still clinging to her head and he snapped them off as she huffed.

“Ehhhhh! I need those, Levi!”

Holding the glasses in a single hand, he eyed the dirty lens. Spots and mysterious smudges caked either side of the glass. “How do you see with these shitty glasses?”

Busying herself with cleaning her exposed eyes with her fists, Hanji whined.

“Not well now that you’ve taken them!”

He grunted, taking the cloth from the bucket and cleaning the glasses hurriedly.

“There should be some oils on the side of the tub – _other side, dimwit_ – for your hair.” He waited for her fumbling fingers to find the small bottles. “After you wash your hair, clean your body, get out, grab a towel from the wall, get dressed, go to bed.”

“But, Levvvvvvvvvvvviiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” The way she drew out his name was utterly annoying. He glared at the back of her head. “How do I know that I’m doing it right? I need your instruction!”

“You’ll know when you’re doing it right. Because you won’t smell like an outhouse.”

“BUT-“

“Why…” he started, stopping when Hanji immediately quieted to turn her head. “Why were you so calm? Before?”

“Hmm?” Hanji glanced up at him, her normally wide eyes inquisitive. “Well because I trust you, of course. You aren’t going to drown me in the men’s bathhouse. Silly man.”

Tilting his head, he gave the left lens of her glasses one last swipe before setting them down beside the bucket. Still holding the cloth, he crouched behind her head and sighed deeply. Trust. What exactly did that mean? He had known it in Farlan and Isabel and now somewhat hesitantly in Erwin. But if trust were a necessity above ground, could he really hope to get by on his rage? Would it not be simply another thing to worry about sullying his choices?

He had a choice now. A reasonable one of leaving Hanji to her own devices to bathe like a fucking adult. Or to teach her and be done with it and have her holding the memory over his head like a noose.

Hanji’s head had turned back forward and she leaned forward to squint at the oils in her hands.

Levi sighed, placing the heavy cloth in his hand across the edge of the tub.

“Hand me the clear one,” he said, reaching out and roughly taking the bottle offered to him. Pouring the liquid into his hand, he placed the bottle down before grabbing her head with his free hand. Even after having dunked her into the water, he could still feel grit and grime and things in her hair. His stomach clenched in revulsion.

Rubbing his other hand into her hair, he frowned as she giggled. “Pay attention,” he snapped. “I’m only doing this once. You use the clear liquid first on your wet hair. Rub it in like I’m doing. Everywhere: Scalp. Ends of the hair. Back. Front. Side. Side.”

His hands worked into her head until she had a ball of suds as hair. Having at some point lifted her hands to assist him, she worked the product in, fingers colliding with his own every now and again. Yet she awed delightedly, picking up some suds and blowing it away from her fingers.

Without warning, he once again ducked her head below the water, though more slowly this time. He barely waited a moment before pulling her up and running his hands through her hair to rid what product the water had failed to grasp.

“Why did you dunk me again?”

“Because you need to clean the oil out.”

She huffed, exasperated. “But wasn’t the other oil supposed to be cleaning my head?”

Taking the other bottle from her hand, this time containing olive colored liquid, he shook his head. “When you sweep up dirt, do you just leave it in the pile on the floor?”

“No!” she said rather quickly. He glared at her.

“Then you wouldn’t do the same to your head. This ensures all the dirt is out.”

She hummed thoughtfully. “I see.”

Bringing his liquid stained hand to her face, he said, “Do you see how this liquid is thicker than the other?”

“Yes! Why is that?”

“It’s used to make your hair smooth.”

“OOOOHHHHH! I bet you use a lot of that, right, Levi?”

Unbidden, her right hand shot up to curl her fingers into his hair. He quite nearly smacked his hand against her face.

“You do! You do! So silky and smooth…”

“Shut up, Shitty Glasses,” he said, rather liking the new name for her. It shut her up immediately. He’d have to remember that one. Satisfied, he plopped the hand with the oil in the middle of her head as she retracted her hand. “It’s really for luxury’s sake. You want to use it to make sure that your head is clean.”

She nodded, staying silent for once.

They went through the motions again – making sure her head was drenched with oil before dunking her a last time.

“Now,” he said, handing her the cloth, “get this cloth wet and wash your face and neck.”

“Okay!” she said enthusiastically. As she followed his order, he picked up the brush and began to run it through her hair. Its bristles were a little too thick but the brush did a great job of busying him while she cleaned.

“Behind your ears too,” he added.

The cloth ran across and behind one ear and then another.

“I’m going to clean your back. Get your front while I’m doing this,” he said, letting the brush fall between her shoulder blades.

She cast him a playful look over her shoulders. “Sure you don’t want to trade? All the good stuff is on my side!”

He slapped the back of her head none too gently.

“Front! Got it…got it…”

Working the brush into her skin and over her bumped spine, Levi bore into the muscles with a heavy hand. Her back twisted and arched along with his movements as she scrubbed her chest, her arms, the space beneath her arms and the tops of her shoulders.

As she bent to move lower, he accessed her lower back and slipped the brush beneath the water to scrub at her skin. When he focused on the end of her spine, she laughed.

Grumbling, he tossed the brush onto the floor.

“You’ll want to stand up to get the back of your legs,” he said, grabbing the bucket by the handle and turning to find Hanji on all fours in the tub, her bum jiggling in his direction. “Or do whatever the fuck that is.”

Her laughter made him want to punch her as he realized he was giving in more than was necessary to her demands and not so much teaching her as falling into the role of her caretaker. Deciding not to voice his frustration, he walked calmly over to the tub before snatching an ankle into his hands.

“WAHHH! LEVI! I’ll fall!”

“Tch. Just hand me the cloth.”

Steadying herself, she swung an arm out with the cloth. He took it and slid it across her shaking leg. “Be sure to always clean the in-betweens…including behind your knees.”

The gear had left an outline along the back of the knee that he currently cleaned. Watching her skin ripple and shake, he glanced up to the view between her legs. He paused. She was so trusting…he could rip her in half or fuck her from this position and yet she leaned, awaiting him to finish her bath. It was practically childlike, her trust in him.

_No_ , he realized suddenly. _Not just in me…in everyone. In everything. That it may just all be_ -

Straightening the line of his mouth, he quietly cleaned the rest of her right leg before moving quickly to the left. In no time he was done, setting her leg back in the water before turning on his heel and grabbing the bucket from the floor.

“Are we done now? Am I clean enough for you? Can I go-WAH!”

Scooping up water and pouring it on her head made his mind clearer, less clouded by emotions. She heaved before laughing again, standing up and shaking her body like a wet dog.

“What did you do that for?” she asked.

“Because,” he said. “You trust me to.”


End file.
